Putin's PR blitz - win or lose?

Putin in power – Russia's President Vladimir Putin is a popular but polarizing figure who has dominated Russian politics for more than a decade. Click through to see some highlights of his career.

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Putin in power – Putin serves as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the City Council in St. Petersburg from 1991 to 1994. Before becoming involved in politics, he served in the KGB, a Soviet-era spy agency, as an intelligence officer.

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Putin in power – Russian President Boris Yeltsin, right, shakes hands with Putin during a farewell ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 31, 1999. Putin rose quickly through the political ranks, becoming the second democratically elected president of the Russian Federation in 2000.

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Putin in power – President-elect Putin watches the tactical exercises of Russia's Northern Fleet in the Barentsevo Sea on April 6, 2000. He has been at the helm during a decade of Russian economic growth fueled by natural resources of gas and oil.

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Putin in power – A Russian cadet snaps a picture with Putin in Moscow's Red Square on May 9, 2007, during an annual celebration of the end of World War II. Putin has pushed to modernize Russia's military.

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Putin in power – Putin attends an inauguration ceremony for president-elect Dmitry Medvedev at Moscow's Kremlin on May 7, 2008. Putin was constitutionally obliged to stand down as president but stayed close to power, becoming prime minister.

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Putin in power – Putin vacations outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia in 2009. Over the years he has earned a reputation as a "strongman," declaring a crackdown on Chechen militants a priority in his first presidential term.

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Putin in power – President Barack Obama meets Prime Minister Putin at his home in Novo Ogaryovo, near Moscow, on July 7, 2009. Putin said Russia was pinning its hopes on Obama to revive ties with the United States.

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Putin in power – A worker takes down a giant elections poster bearing a portrait of Putin on October 13, 2009, in Moscow. Putin's party tightened its grip on Russian politics with a sweeping victory in local elections, officials said, as the opposition alleged widespread fraud.

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Putin in power – Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin ski together in Krasnaya Polyana, near the Black Sea resort of Sochi in southern Russia, on January 3, 2010.

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Putin in power – Putin takes part in a judo training session at a sports complex in St. Petersburg, on December 22, 2010. The Russian leader holds a black belt in judo.

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Putin in power – Putin receives a medical consultation during his visit to the Smolensk Regional Hospital on August 25, 2011. Putin said he hurt his shoulder during morning judo practice.

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Putin in power – Putin speaks to supporters at a Moscow rally on February 23, 2012. He won the presidential election in March, with just under 65% of the vote. Former President Medvedev became his prime minister.

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Putin in power – A topless protester shouts at Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, during their visit to the Hanover Industrial Fair in central Germany on April 8. Human rights groups say civil liberties and democratic freedoms have suffered during Putin's rule.

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Putin in power – Putin addresses the media during his visit to Hanover on April 8.

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Putin in power – Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, ended their nearly 30-year marriage, the state-run news agency reported on June 6.

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Putin in power – Putin, center, poses for a photo with Russian Olympic athletes in Sochi, Russia, on February 24. Russia hosted the Olympic Games and won the most medals.

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Putin in power – Putin, center, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, arrive to watch a military exercise at the Kirillovsky firing ground in Russia's Leningrad region on March 3.

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Story highlights

Tara Sonenshine: Putin op-ed not surprising: Russia has long tried to build its popularity

Putin attentive to polls on views of Russia, tries to stem persistent negative portrayals, she says

All this excitement over recent Russian public diplomacy on Syria is a bit odd to those of us who have been following that diplomacy strategy for over a decade. That Vladimir Putin chose to write an op-ed in The New York Times this week is not at all shocking. It is part of a broader pattern of Russian outreach that began in 2001.

What confuses people about Russian public diplomacy is that it often veers from a closed fist approach to an open handshake depending on its narrow objective -- all the while testing America as it seeks to build its own popularity around the world.

Since the end of the 1990s the Russians have been aware that America and other nations see a weakened former Soviet empire behaving badly in the world, and they have sought to correct that perception beginning with the hiring of an American public relations firm back in 2006, which generated interest at the time.

Over the years, Russian officials have looked for opportunities in the media to portray Russia as helpful and constructive -- even when it was not. They attempted to use Russian television, and later the Internet, to brandish a better image in the West -- creating a news agency, RIA (The Russian Agency for International Information) which operates 80 news bureaus around the world and Russia Today which boasts a following of 630 million people in over 100 countries. The Russians are also fans of inserting newspaper supplements of Russia Today in American newspapers just to remind readers of their relevance.

Tara Sonenshine

Let's face it. Russia remains relevant but its image in the world has suffered throughout the last decade, for good reason. Think of some of the recent events: the conflict Russia had in 2008 with its southern neighbor, Georgia, over the disputed territory of South Ossetia. Then there was the feud with Ukraine in 2009 which resulted in Russia cutting off gas to Ukraine. There was a series of international corruption scandals around a Russian oil firm, Gazprom, including accounting charges involving U.S. financial firms.

One cannot, of course, forget the Magnitsky case which emanated from the arrest, and subsequent death in custody of a Russian lawyer who became a whistle-blower about human rights. That case led to a feud with the United States, congressional sanctions, and the release of a list in April of Russian individuals not allowed into America. Add to that the Russian imprisonment of a feminist punk rock group -- Pussy Riot -- for daring to protest against the Russian government. Oh, and let's not forget Russia's hosting of NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

Russia often finds itself in the odd situation of doing negative things and trying to get positive press. It cracks down on dissidents one day but then bids for the Olympics the next. It woos the United States and then bashes it. And then its leader writes an op-ed.

Writing op-eds in American newspapers is not new for the Russians. A good example comes from three years ago. In March 2009, on the eve of a G-20 meeting with President Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, telegraphing a new U.S.-Russian relationship based on the concept of mutual interests.

Experts weigh in on Putin's op-ed

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Putin's powerful American PR firm

He cleverly invoked the writing of the French philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, author of "Democracy in America." In the op-ed the Russian president predicted "a great future for our two nations," adding that "So far, each country has tried to prove the truth of those words to itself and the world by acting on its own. I firmly believe that at this turn of history, we should work together."

What is worth remembering is that the Russians don't mind twists and "turns of history" -- and they don't mind a bit of confusion about whether or not they are good guys or bad. This op-ed in The New York Times has generated both outrage and curiosity -- with some predictable criticism by the anti-Russia crowd on Capitol Hill, who believe America will be duped.

For Americans, there is something emotional about Russia. It inevitably evokes fear and fascination in the United States and the West perhaps because of its long and complex history, its culture, and memories of Cold War days when so much time, effort and money was spent defending ourselves against the Soviet Union.

Russia's latest attempt to win hearts and minds is intriguing and is likely to be effective if the result is some kind of interim deal over chemical weapons. A positive step by Syria, at the urging of Moscow, to acknowledge its chemical stockpiles and surrender even a portion of them would be a good development -- and Russia will claim credit for saving the day. If the diplomacy fails, and the U.S. decides to strike Syria, Russia will lay the blame for any damage on America. So either way, the gamble makes sense from Putin's view.

As for the United States, we have no choice but to take Russia up on the offer to press the Syrians to relinquish control over the weapons. Americans like peaceful solutions and we certainly should test the proposition with Russia. But while we are diplomatically dueling with Russia, we must remain mindful of their public diplomacy strategies, watch closely as they maneuver and, in the end, do what is in our own national security interest.